


Won't Let Go

by DarkAlpha67



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Best Friends Barry and Thea, Central City, F/M, Hints of Caitlin Snow/Ronnie Raymond, Hints of Oliver Queen/ Felicity Smoak, Mention of Caitlin, Mention of Cisco, Mention of Iris - Freeform, Mention of Oliver, Oliver Queen/ Felicity Smoak- Mentioned, Past Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Past Moira Queen/ Robert Queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 18:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10195889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAlpha67/pseuds/DarkAlpha67
Summary: Thea and Barry are best friends.They know their friendship seems questionable but when a book store owner brings up the subject, everything changes.Fears are reveals and Promises are made.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I know they are very unlikely but it's all about potential with me when it comes to couples, and the videos' done by Gwenny are so awesome and inspiration, i couldn't help myself.

Central City is known for its sunny weather, for its open blue skies and its starry nights. She still can’t believe it sometimes as she lays in her room that she is here. That she is somewhere quiet, not the deafening silence she grew up with but the peaceful kind. The kind that makes her smile and close her eyes.

She lives alone with Ollie, who’s trying to get his life together by going to college which he only agreed to if it was far away from Starling.

Thea still can’t believe he took her with her, to finish her High School life with him.

Their parents were not happy about it, they still aren’t but nothing back in Starling is worth being happy about, and nothing in Starling is worth missing.

And now here she is…

There is a cool breeze in the air, a sign that winter is approaching and the sunny weather will soon be just a memory for a while. Her short curly hair brushes against the tip of her nose and Thea wrinkles it to try and get rid of the strands without having to let go of the arm she is holding onto.

A hand comes up, a long finger gently hooks around the irritating strand and tucks it away. She smiles, looking up at him, his green eyes already on her.

Meeting Barry, becoming his friend had been one of the best things that could have happened to her. Alone, in a new place, in a new school where she knew no one, but everyone knew her.

Thea Queen, the billionaire, with a playboy brother and two powerful parents.

She thought moving to Central City would change that but it seems no matter where she went, her name went with her. She thought she would have had to come up with a new persona, become someone she wasn’t once again and then Barry ran into, literally. He had been talking with a girl, who she later found out was named Iris, and hadn’t been paying close attention to his surroundings. She had not been harmed but Barry, in shock of walking into someone, somehow managed to lose his footing and land flat on his ass in front of her.

“So where are we going?” She asks, looking up to him.

He is in his usual attire, skinny jeans, converse and a nice thick hoodie. Only thing different is the scarf around his neck, that she assumed Iris forced him to wear.

“Nowhere.” Barry answers, shrugging in a carefree manner.

Thea stops, raising her eye brows at him. He called her, waking her up from her a nice badass dream where she was in red leather, and had awesome fighting skills. He had been shouting over the phone, telling her to get ready he will be there in half an hour and that they were going out.

He showed up an hour later, as Thea predicated, apologizing, saying Iris stole his shoe and wouldn’t give it back until he told her where he was going.

“Relax!” Barry turns, his arm still hooked with hers, walking backwards, pulling her along. “We have the whole day to do something, let’s just walk around and let life happen.”

Thea groans, but allows him to pull her with him. “God, did Cisco give you one of those adventure books again?”

“Those books are awesome!” Barry defends and Thea detects a hint of blush on his cheek.

Along with Barry, came three more people. Iris, his sister, a determined girl who lets nothing get in her. Cisco, a Spanish boy, who takes life way to easily, always having faith ‘in the universe’. And Caitlin, a calculated, smart girl who looks at life through a microscope and analyses everything around her.

Their group is weird one.

It consists of Barry, the schools resident geek/nerd (He calls himself a Neek), Caitlin, the smartest girl in school who’s the leader of almost all the academic groups the school has to offer, Cisco, the mischievous boy who plays pranks on every teacher who gives him a reason to, Iris, the popular girl who writes for the school paper, with the dream of becoming a journalist, Ronnie, the jock whose dating Caitlin but has the kindest heart and always helps where he can and Thea, the billionaire who is so well known, she might as well be considered royalty, which is an overused joke given her last name.

They continue walking down the street, stopping every now and then to look into a store through the windows for anything that might interest them, before continuing.

She likes this, how comfortable she is around Barry, how she can do almost anything with him and still feel happy and content, even if they are doing something as boring as watching a movie or walking around Central with no direction what so ever.

“Oh! How about in there?”

Thea stops and turns her head to where Barry is pointing to see a small little book store, the kind that sells second hand books. She looks up and raises her eye brows at Barry because of course he would want to go in there.

Seeing the excited look in his eyes, she can’t help but give in.

“Sure, why not?”

“Really?” He asks incredulously, his voice squeaking just a bit.

Thea chuckles and shrugs. “Yeah.”

And then she finds her hand being grabbed and Barry is dragging her across the street to the book store, bouncing on his feet with excitement. He’s adorable that way, something she hopes age won’t change because she really likes that about him, his ability to still be so carefree after all that has happened to him.

The moment they step inside, Thea is greeted with silence. The air is warm, a little stuffy with the scent of aged books filling the air. Barry lets go of her hand and unwraps his scarf around his neck, turning to look at her with expecting eyes.

“Go, Barry.” She says.

Apparently that is all he needed because he grins at her before disappearing around a column of books, looking around at every title, taking everything in as fast as possible. Thea shakes her head fondly as she watches him.

“How long have you two been together?”

Spinning around she sees an old man standing near the register. His hair is thinned out and grey, a few stranding hanging over his bald patch, his face looks bleak as if it no longer holds any color. Wiry glasses rest on the edge of his nose, making him look wise, and the crow’s feet around his eyes suggests he spend most of his life, laughing and smiling.

“I’m sorry?” Thea asks.

The man looks at her and smiles, his eyes holding no recognition of who she is and that’s puts her at ease just a bit.

“You and the stick? How long have you two been together?” He asks, in a gruff voice.

Thea’s eyes widen and she looks over her shoulder to see Barry now crouched, looking at the books on the lower level, his eyes narrowed. She turns back to the man and opens her mouth to tell him that no, her and Barry are not together when he speaks up.

“I can see it. My dear Ruth and I use to be just like you two. Anyone can see the how much you care about each other and watching you…” The man laughs, his eyes glimmering with a small hint of tears. “I am sorry, I didn’t meant to startle you.”

Thea shakes her head, takes a step forward with a small smile. “No, it’s fine. I wasn’t startled.”

The man gives her a nod of thanks. “You two seem good for each other. I don’t know you but after so many years, I have had different people come in here and I can tell, when two people have a good path ahead of them.”

She opens her mouth again, to tell the man that she and Barry aren’t together when she feels someone walking up behind her. She looks over her shoulder to see Barry standing there with three books in his hands.

“Done?” Thea asks, eager to leave.

Eager to walk away from the man’s knowing smile and wise eyes because she doesn’t need that right now. She is aware that her friendship with Barry comes into question a lot, because of how they are around each other. Even Ollie asked if there was something there but Thea is young and after being on the side lines and being the outsider’s eye to her parent’s marriage, Thea isn’t ready for that, she isn’t ready to be with someone… Or at least she thinks she isn’t.

After paying for his book, the book owner hands Barry his change and gives him a stern, fatherly look. “Now you appreciate her, young man. A bond like yours isn’t easy to find.”

She can tell he is confused, his brows furrows together but Barry being the sweet and respectful guy that he is, nods like he understands what the bookstore owner is saying.

“I will, sir.”

Barry and Thea walk out the door, in silence. Thea knows her friend is itching to ask what that was about back there but is also biting his tongue in the hopes that Thea will tell him herself.

That is something he does, after they had an argument because Barry kept on asking and asking about what she is hiding and why she doesn’t trust so easily that Thea ended up snapping at him. Since then, he has asked, repeating himself only twice to make sure she doesn’t want to talk about whatever it is that is bothering her, before letting the subject go until Thea brought it up herself.

“Okay, I can’t!” Barry burst out, stopping. “I need to ask, what was that back there?”

Thea chuckles, biting her bottom lip. “You hanged in there longer than I expected.”

Barry widen his eyes, waving his hand around for in a ‘what the heck, just tell me’ way.

Rolling her eyes, she gives his arm that is hooking with hers a strong tug to keep walking. “The store owner, thought we were together. Said we reminded him of him and wife. I think she passed away, so I didn’t have the heart to say anything. And even as if tried to, he kept talking over me.”

“Huh,” Is all Barry says.

She knows it’s going to turn awkward soon, as it always does when someone brings up the nature of their friendship. Thea isn’t an idiot, she knows Barry has a small crush on her, she noticed it after she kissed him one night at a party Iris’ had been invited to and forced Barry to go with, who forced Thea to go with too.

The scene reminded her too much of home so she went outside where she found Barry sitting. They talked that night, laughing, playing 20 questions because they were bored and then Thea asked him when the last time he kissed someone was. He fell silent, blushing and looking down. She asked again, rephrasing her question to ‘have you ever kissed someone?’

And that’s when she found out that Barry Allen, the sweet rambling guy has never kissed a girl in his life. She asked if he was straight he shouted yes, embarrassment flushing his face.

She felt bold that night, so she asked if he would like her to be his first kiss and then… they kissed. It was sweet, and short but it left Barry breathless.

“Do you ever think about it?”

Barry's quiet voice pulls her back.

“Think about what?”

“Us? Together, I mean.”

Thea pauses, causing Barry to stop too. She looks up at him, narrowing her eyes, trying to find that look she always sees in his eyes when he thinks she isn’t looking. She spoke to Ollie about it but he just said not to force the issue that it might be an innocent crush that will slowly die out.

“Uh, yeah. I mean when people continuously bring it up, I think about it. To try and see what they see.” She tries to keep her tone light and conversational.

“So, you don’t like… think about it… in an ‘I’m considering it’ kinda way?”

Her heart pounds against her chest and forces her voice to remain calm, even if she is panicking inside. She has thought about it, some nights it’s all she thinks about but… After watching Ollie’s love life, watching her parent’s marriage slowly destroy them, she can’t find it in herself to consider it a possibility.

“Nope.” She smiles at him. “I told you Barry, I don’t believe in love. At least not the ones that last. And besides, our friendship is too important to risk, right?”

She looks up at him, her green eyes wide and expectant, waiting for him to agree with her, to nod and say ‘totally’ but he doesn’t. He looks away, down at his shoes. She swallows thickly, looking around her, trying to find Joe’s car that Barry used to see how far they still have to walk, maybe they can close that small distance between them and the car, get in and forget this ever happened.

But the car is nowhere in sight.

They are near an alley, the kind that is short and open, not creepy and scary, but leads to another part of town, where more shops and more stores lay.

“Barry, let’s go-“

“I have thought about it.”

And just like that, her heart freezes. She shake her head, tries to open her mouth to tell Barry to stop, that she doesn’t want to have this conversation, she doesn’t want to open that can of worms.

Oliver’s voice rings in her ears: Not every love is like our parents, Speedy. Some loves are worth the risk.

She thinks about the girl, the blonde, Oliver can’t be with, until he changes his act…

“Barry-“

He grabs her arm, turns her around just a bit, leading to the mouth of the alley, away from people and away from distractions. Thea bites her lip, trying to keep her body from shaking, her mind from going blank.

“Listen, I know all right. I know I am like the last guy you could ever be attracted to and I know that me saying this right now will probably ruin everything but I just—“

She shakes her head. “Barry, stop.”

He stops, his head jerking back just a bit as if he has to physically hold back his words.

Thea opens her mouth, tries to tell him that he isn’t the last guy she could ever be attracted to you, that saying this won’t ruin their friendship because she knows all this _already_. But she can’t seem to find her voice.

Running her fingers through her hair, she moves it out of her face, in hopes that opening up her face will make it easier for her to breathe, easier for her to clear up her foggy mind and easier for her to find her goddamn voice!

“I- I don’t,” She licks her lips and shakes her head. “I don’t believe in that, Barry. I don’t believe in love, and I can’t- I can’t do that to you.”

There are so many words running through her head and she is sure that she isn’t making any sense but the look in Barry’s eyes, the heart breaking and heart-warming cocktail of fear and hope, makes it so hard for her to think. She tries to remember what Ollie said about love and risks.

She tries to think of a valid reason to give Barry, other than an irrational fear bestowed upon her from watching her parents, Ollie and Laurel and Ollie and other girls…

“I’m sorry, Barry. I’m sorry but I can’t.”

He breathes out a soft, husky, “But why? What are you so afraid of?”

Thea turns around, shaking her head. She wants to go back to before, to when they were two friends just hanging out, she wants to go back and not walk into that book store, to just keep walking.

A hand grabs her elbow and gently turns her around. She ducks her head, trying to hide the tears that are building up in eyes as memory after memory rushing through her head.

Mom and Dad smiling with guests.

Ollie smiling at Laurel.

Mom and Dad look at each other, their smiles fixed but their eyes vacant.

Mom and Dad fighting late at night in hushed tones, thinking she can’t hear them.

Ollie and Laurel fighting loudly, not caring who heard.

Mom and Dad drifting apart.

Ollie and Laurel breaking up.

“Hey,” A hand comes up to her face and slowly guides it back. “Thea. I’m sorry I brought it up, I didn’t mean…”

Thea sniffs and forces the memories away. “It’s not you. It’s just…” She takes in a deep breath and looks up to him, letting his comforting soft green eyes sooth her. “I watched, I watched my parents and Ollie go through all that in the name of Love and I just I can’t, I can’t go through all that.”

Barry strokes her cheek with his thumb. “What if I promised it doesn’t have to be like that?”

Thea is already shaking her head, the moment the word ‘promise’ left his mouth but Barry seems determined, now more than ever. He’s leans down, dropping his bag with his books in on the ground and cups her other jaw, holding her face gently in his hands.

“Thea, not all love is the same and I believe that if someone wants it, if someone wants someone else as much as I want you, they will fight to be with that person. I have seen love okay, I remember my parents and how they were with each other- Not, all love ends badly. If you can take that small leap of faith, I can prove to you that love is something to _wish_ for, not to fear.”

Tears are rolling down her cheeks, his words and his voice sounds so strong. He sounds so sure of himself and in what he is saying that Thea finds herself believing him, finds a small part of her, a small part that hasn’t been blackened, hoping that he is telling her the truth.

She closes her eyes and sighs, moving her head up and down slowly.

“Yeah?” Barry asks hopefully.

Thea opens her eyes, seeing his glowing with joy, his burrowed brows smoothing out and his smiles returning on his face. She gets out a broken chuckle and finds herself nodding.

Barry beams at her, leaning down, ducking his head. He moves slowly, waiting for her and giving her the time she needs to change her mind. Thea tilts her head up and meets him half-way, brushing their lips together in a soft, barely felt kiss.

The feeling of his lips seems a wave of emotions rushing through her. Joy, excitement, nervousness, worry, doubt, assurance, hope, fear… All of them, mixed together but this time she picks the good ones. She picks Joy, excitement, assurance and hope, letting their light and their goodness overshadow the other raw and painfully emotions.

Barry pulls away and wraps his arms around her, pulling her against his chest. His hand cups the back of her head and Thea holds onto him, closing her eyes, feeling the warmth of his body, smelling his musky scent, letting his warmth envelop her.

“I promise, I won’t let go.”

Barry whispers into her ear.

Thea tightens her hold on him and for the first time since she moved here, since Ollie promised that she can have a fresh start with him, she believe someone’s _words_ , taking it to heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any mistakes, they are my own.


End file.
